Breedia forum - thread types

Hi Guys,

Just a quick question. I am currently setting up breed specific forums on Breedia (so every breed has its own forum).

Each breed forum is going to have thread categories and so all threads in a breed forum will show as normal threads do here, but people will also be able to see only the discussion threads, or questions, or photos etc.

So may question is, how many categories do we need? At the mo I have:

• General chat
• Question
• Discussion
• Photos
• Controversial

But do we need to get rid of question, and have:

• Health
• Behaviour
• Grooming

instead?

All threads from all breed forums will show in a latest 'new posts' link as well, so it will still be easy to get all the latest posts without having to go to each breed forum.

What do you think?

I like the different categories (health, behaviour, grooming) rather than just 'questions'

Maybe a show section too?
For people to show off their results and/or ask questions on showing

Good ideas Erin, I can see the show section being used more on a breed forum (it doesn't get used much here). Though then we'd have to accommodate other activities too? Could get messy with too many. Then again, we could actually have specific categories for different types of dogs too - so breeds used for working trials could have dedicated categories for that. I guess we can always add more later if we need to.

I am not sure how it will all fit in the design yet - so less might up ending being more

Keep the ideas coming - getting a good idea of what we could put up is a good step to bounce off.

I think a Health heading is essential. This thread could provide a First Stop for the less savvy folk who want to know which tests, certificates or grading the parents of their chosen breed should have, or a route for breed specific queries.
I'm a bit worried by Controversial. What type of posts did you envisage appearing in this section? Also, do you think a section for Breed rescue could be useful? Anything that furthers the placing of sound dogs in good homes can only be a plus point.

Hi Carole, the breed profile contains a health section Beagle Information is that the sort of thing you mean?

We could probably have a sticky thread in the Breed specific forum sections with user-submitted lists or details as well though.

I am trying to work out whether too many sections might be a pain. Whenever anyone posts a thread they will have to select a category - will too many become irritating? Like you both, I do like the idea of more sections (hence posting this thread) but can now see we could end up with loads

With regards to controversial, it will be for anything that may be controversial - and I guess may be used in some breed sections more than others. EG, those where exaggerated breeding is being highlighted as a problem. Having a controversial category separates those threads somewhat, and stops people feeling like people are trolling the rest of the board.

Also, forgot to say that I have bought a good domain for a rescue site as well so eventually, when that site is done, there will be a link to it from the main page

I was thinking of the the various tests which the KC/BVA recommend for breeding stock, ie. hip and eye status. These do vary a lot depending on the breed - rather more testing is done in some breeds than others.
Hmm. See what you mean though about the number of threads - but a general 'Questions' could be quite a jumble. Pleased there will be a forum for rescue dogs.

I think more I think of it the more I think that yes, it would be nice to have more categories - the only problem was it making things look a little cluttered, so maybe I can find a way to add the classifications, but not necessarily show them (but still allow people to sort the forum by them).

So maybe our categories could be:

General Chat
Discussion
Health
Behaviour
Training
Grooming
Showing
Working

And maybe we could have:

Breeding
Rescue

But with these, I think they would be better of off the forum - the Rescue aspect will hopefully be covered by the dedicated rescue site (and linked to from the main breed nav) and breeding could be catered for in a private forum (so we don't give the impression the site is full of breeders).

But I dunno

was gonna suggest rescue . but I c you have it down now

Not sure whether to add rescue as a forum category now, or wait until the rescue site is done :/ if we add it now, we'll have to adding breeding too I guess

This is what I've got so far:

General

General
Question
Discussion
Photo
Controversial

Health & Behaviour

Health
Diet
Grooming
Behaviour
Training

Activities
Showing
Agility
Working Dogs
Obedience
Dog Sports

What do you think?

I like it